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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

1983 arty adult film by director Walerian Borowczyk. Hailed by Vincent Canby of the New York Times, The Art Of Love is Borowczyk's final film of his Immoral Trilogy . A lushly bizarre erotic tale, The Art Of Love is set in Rome, 8 A.D., where the poet Ovid watches over an epoch of forbidden seduction and unnatural acts among maidens, centurions, servant girls and the occasional farm animal. Borowcxyk's film is now fully restored including the Roman Orgy sequence and presented uncut and uncensored for the first time ever in America.

Review

Borowczyk Is Fascinated By Women & Amazed By All The Erotic Possibilities They Present --Vincent Canby, The New York Times

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This film is trying to be a dark version of a David Hamilton film, but it only succeeds in being capricious and illogical. The two girls who are meant to be the center of the story are treated by the filmmakers as marionettes. Are they supposed to have the obsessive/reluctant lesbian relationship we saw in Lost and Delirious? Are they supposed to be a devoted pair against the evils of the world? Are they supposed to be only having the innocent girl/girl affections of Un été à Saint-Tropez? Apparently, all of these at the same time. Really, they just do whatever the script says for no good reason, and this is an insult to them and their secondary players who are not bad actors. Jacqueline Bisset, who plays the headmistress, is likewise misplaced and clearly is acting above the level of writing she's given.

As said elsewhere, the film is all over the place; tender one minute, gruesomely callous the next, with an ending that is pedantic in its melodrama. The title is about some other film, since this one presupposes to be about girls who are either to be sold to nobles as pretty sex toys or coldly buried in the basement. Yet there's no hint of training in the "Art of Love", either in the `70s sense of The Story of 'O' or even a softer version. Sure, there's discipline and dark secrets, but neither come from an institutionalization of sexual slavery to men. The "prima ballerina" is simply given over to the prince after having trained heavily for a dance performance. Here, Hidalla suddenly and inexplicably begins openly flirting with the prince, which leads to equally sudden and unfounded tragedy for Irene.Read more ›

First off, the movie runs about 1 hr 35min not 17 mins as it is listed. It also costs $2.99 and not $1.99 for a 7 day rental. This movie was a trip. It's about a school for girls in the middle of nowhere that teaches ballet. I assume we were to interpret that this is a "finishing school". The plot surrounds its self around making the girls wanting to become the "primaballerina" for the ballet for the prince. One girl decides that she likes one of the other girls and tries to get the girl to start liking her. Once they are together they become inseperable and start getting into dumb stuff. They try to be secretive so that know one finds them out and try to run away from the school. People are killed and there is nudity in this film (which I hope the girls were of age when they filmed this). The head mistress wants to remain the head honcho and does not like the other woman that is trying to "steal" the school from her. The ending makes no sense. The prince and his paupers were all old perverts. I hate ordering movies that don't make sense and this one fits the bill.

As a Borowczyk fan, I must say I enjoy The Art Of Love, although it may not be his best film. An ambitious ode to poet Ovid, one gets the feeling a larger budget would have been needed to get this done just right. Boro does his best with some nice soft focus and natural lighting, giving the proceedings an airy, glowing look similar to Behind Convent Walls and Emmanuelle 5. Sadly, the print used here gives it a washed out, at times over-exposed look. A film using soft-focus and unusual lighting definitely needed more care in the transfer, and much color correction.

Plotwise, it's basically the story of a handsome Roman general, his cheating wife and her young lover, a student of Ovid. There's a dream-like air of fantasy to the story, and the narrative takes a backseat to the visuals, intentionally I'd say. Performances by the talented and striking cast are hindered by sloppy dubbing, although the lovely score by Luis Bacalov adds much.

So I say, Borowczyk fans check it out... those looking for smut will find Art Of Love too arty and slow, historians probably a bit too pervy.

Away from prying eyes, there's a school that teaches young girls how to please their elite masters. On the surface, it's an orphanage doubled as a 'finishing school' where the girls learn dance, music, and etiquette taught by severe demanding teachers headed by a heartless headmistress played by Jacqueline Bisset. But a completely different reality is hidden beneath this facade.